But on Thursday, the news programme, first aired in 1967, suffered a different sort of blow – beaten in the ratings by bawdy ITV2 panel show, Celebrity Juice, hosted by Keith Lemon, the outspoken, some would say insufferable, creation of former Bo' Selecta Leigh Francis.

It was a close run thing, however, Celebrity Juice was watched by an average of 1.63m viewers, a 9.1% share, between 10pm and 10.50pm, 142% up on ITV2's slot average over the last three months.

The ITV2 show was just 10,000 viewers ahead of the ITN-produced news programme, watched by 1.62 million viewers, an 8.7% share.

Indeed, News at Ten nudged back into the lead when timeshifted channel ITV+1 is taken into account, growing its audience by another 50,000 viewers to 1.71 million.

Lemon's show celebrated its 100th edition on Thursday night and the arrival of a new team captain, Kelly Brook, in place of Fearne Cotton, who has just had a baby son.

Lemon, who looks more at home on ITV2 than he did on Saturday night peaktime ITV with his show Keith Lemon's Lemonaid, incurred the ire of Ofcom last month for a pre-watershed trailer featuring a prosthetic which the media regulator said looked like an erect penis.

ITV, responding on behalf of the show, said – au contraire – it was actually a "pricket bat". Ofcom begged to differ.

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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